How old is too old to pursue MD LTE cert?

from what i've seen of likely test material, most of the failures from a climbing perspective are probably all of the biology and plant related care questions... like i said, i have virtually no knowledge of tree physiology or any other botanical/arboreal specifics except for what i barely remember from landscaping 10 years ago. the climbing related questions were much easier because that's where my mind has been.

I started climbing because of a dead tree in my yard and have had more fun with ropes and climbing than thinking about becoming an arborist as a job prospect. I did help my neighbor and my mother clear some dangerous stuff out of their yards, though. I treated both as learning experience in somewhat controlled environments so i could get a feel for what i can and can't do RIGHT NOW... next year might be a different situation because NOW, i look at every tree i see to figure out if i can or want to climb it!
 
Seems....well...errrr...unconstitutional or something if those that "allow" you to be tested do not allow you to test for fear of "new competition". I bet if you get yourself all ready to test you will find someone to "sponsor?" you? Did you say you have to have 3 years of practical experience verified to just participate as a tree cutter of trees over 20' ht.? I just skimmed thru this. Seems wrong at many levels.
 
Isa CA requirements are kind of similiar situation. Folks that dont have any educational back ground have a harder time qualifying for and passing the test

Is this necessarily a bad thing? I dont mind the bar being taken off the floor a bit...

Go for it guys, study thoroughly.
 
Yeah probably true as I first passed the test (the first test ever) in 1992. I had been studying with Alex Shigo since 1980 and studying on my own since '70 so it was pretty routine stuff. I'd like to see the ISA license tree removal experts somehow too as long as they did not disallow the apprenticeship that is the most prevalent form of learning this business. It would cut down on guys like this in the video, but dumb is hard to eliminate completely. A normal mind would look at this and say..."gravity won't allow this to work".

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=987207851307168
 
You probably too that first exam with Dave Ahlum and Fred Hower! Two Columbus residents and well regarded arborists.
 
Along a similiar vein I would like ISA to add a PHC expert cert as well. Perhaps one day. State pesticide licences arent that difficult and many applicators dont have it but rather work under the boss's liscence as a Trained Service person. They have no business making pesticide and soil treatment decisions.
 
JD3000 said:
You probably too that first exam with Dave Ahlum and Fred Hower! Two Columbus residents and well regarded arborists.
Click to expand...

Maybe not JD. Sometimes things are not as they appear. I went up the road an hour and a half to Oh. State to take the test and I am standing in a huge group of guys chatting it up and there were maybe a hundred or more or less can't be sure. It got close to the time to take the test and nothing was happening. I asked a guy next to me and he said the test was in the other room. I went in there and there were maybe 6 or 8 of us that tested and the huge crowd just got a free pass on taking the test. They became ISA Certified Arborists in beginning and never took a test. Some may say that is not true and even the ISA may or not admit to it...but it happened I swear to God. Somethings just stick in your mind for life.
 
JD3000 said:
Along a similiar vein I would like ISA to add a PHC expert cert as well. Perhaps one day. State pesticide licences arent that difficult and many applicators dont have it but rather work under the boss's liscence as a Trained Service person. They have no business making pesticide and soil treatment decisions.
Click to expand...

Yeah again I agree but likely none of this will ever work. I feel the CA is a must but these other certs, at least the Tree Risk Assessment was ridiculously expensive and they did absolutely nothing to promote it to the public to reveal those in their eyes in the know. I expired a couple of months ago and prior and up to that there was absolutely no chance to retest or to get CEU's to retain your status. Seemed a big money grab to me.
 
There are a lot of utility guys that did not actually take the Maryland Tree Expert exam, they just took a DNR hosted class, got the license, and are grandfathered in. A lot of these credentials are unfair in my opinion. I did TRACE when that was a thing, and I just re-upped through TRAQ a while back and it is so watered down. It is also a larger expense, both in time and money, than TRACE was.

I am taking BCMA next month and if I pass, which I hope to, I will probably not re-up my TRAQ credential when that comes around. I'm trying to streamline these things as much as I can. I agree about the ISA PHC Tech cert.
 
Good luck on the exam. There's a thread from not too long ago that you should check out re BCMA.

Take my advice, start with the provided exam outline and go after subject matter you feel weaker on.
 
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